


Approachable

by Lacertae



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Developing Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-03
Updated: 2014-03-03
Packaged: 2018-01-14 10:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1263070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacertae/pseuds/Lacertae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Pre-relationship, Dave/Karkat*</p><p>Babies' first sleepover on the meteor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Approachable

**Author's Note:**

> This was written from a prompt given to me by DaveKatHugs in an attempt to get me out of my writer's block. The only thing I regret is my inability to title. I hope you enjoy!

It had started to happen quite often in the past month.

Dave was sprawled on his bed –a weird, not quite rectangular-shaped mattress covered with blankets and pillows with far too many corners– with his computer on his lap, headphones loosely curled around his neck and a snack at his side.

Every now and then, his attention moved from what he was doing to the other occupant of the room, careful subtle glances before resuming what he was doing.

Karkat was sprawled in a pile of blankets similar to the one on Dave’s bed, located in a corner of the room so that Karkat would have a strategic advantage when the two decided to start flinging pillows at one another again, and he was busy flipping through one of his weird alien books.

If he had to think back, Dave could not quite recall the last time he’d spent a day all on his own inside his room without the familiar, ever present company of the troll.

It wasn’t a bad thing, honestly –Karkat was a pleasant person… _troll_ … to have around, once you could break through his insults and get to know him– and Dave liked having someone around that wouldn’t talk his ear off all the time, but that could still flare up a conversation if the silence went on for too long.

It was just… weird to know that he was spending so much time in his room with Karkat, that was all.

With Rose and Kanaya in possession of their main recreation room, intent in their slow, embarrassingly sweet flirting that made Dave feel unwelcome even when the two were not there, and the Can Town room under siege of the Mayor, who wanted to prepare a surprise for Dave and as such had kicked him out until it was ready, there weren’t many places to go, not if one disliked the idea of wandering through the mazes of the meteor in order to find something interesting.

So, his room was the only alternative.

Karkat had somehow followed him suit, as it seemed to be common nowadays for the two to spend time together, and it hadn’t clicked as weird to invite the troll to his room at all –he wasn’t quite sure, he’d never had actual _friends_ to invite home.

He guessed he was making up for all that time lost back in Houston by spending recreational time with his alien friend now. Bro would be proud.

They spent time together almost every day, mostly in Dave’s room, idly talking or comparing things between their worlds while they did their own things, simply enjoying each other’s presence until it was time to sleep; Karkat had a hard time sleeping at night, but he still made it a point to leave at the same time every evening, leaving Dave behind in a room that was suddenly a bit more empty and a bit too silent.

Most of the times, Dave was ready to cover up with mixing music until he fell asleep on his own, crawling on his bed and curling up under his blankets, falling into uneasy dreams until it was time to wake up again.

He was starting to get tired of this routine, of having to chase away the loneliness once Karkat was gone, of not knowing how to express this feeling in a way that wouldn’t embarrass him in front of his friend.

Dave glanced up at Karkat again. The troll looked immersed in what he was reading, almost unaware of the time, while Dave being the hero of Time, knew that it was almost time for Karkat to leave for his room, though he didn’t quite look like he wanted to stop reading yet.

He idly considered asking the troll to stick around some more, then shook his head, banishing the idea the moment it was born. No, not good. Why would he do that, why would Karkat even accept, and it wasn’t even worth asking.

Was there even something that they could _do_ together, rather than just coexisting in the same room for a certain amount of hours?

For a moment, his brain flatlined, as he had no idea what he and Karkat shared in terms of common interests. He liked the troll, and their progressing friendship, but he did worry about how they didn’t have much in common, aside for sparring every now and then on the surface of the meteor.

Grasping at an attempt to keep that friendship from going stale, Dave was almost willing to go and ask Rose’s help, even if the very idea wasn’t one he enjoyed, as his ecto-sister had her ways to make him uncomfortable with almost all subjects he tried to tackle with her…

Then, just like that, things clicked, and he knew what to do.

“Hey man,” he called out.

Karkat didn’t seem to hear him, far too engrossed in his book to give Dave some attention, so he stood up and trudged towards the troll, tapping him on the shoulder. “Hey,” he repeated.

“I heard you the first time,” Karkat muttered, still not looking up. “I chose not to indulge you, this part is my favourite”.

“Wait, you read that already?” Dave pointedly ignored the small feeling of disappointment nudging him.

“Well yes,” Karkat cleared his throat and looked up, but his eyes focused on something on the side of Dave’s head, and the human had the definite impression that Karkat was feeling a bit uncomfortable. “What did you want? Already time to kick me out, huh?”

“Uh, no!” Dave hurried to stop him as Karkat made to stand up, hand hovering on his shoulder but not quite touching it. “I mean, nah man, you can stay and read up all you want, but,” he smirked down, trying to feign smugness, “why don’t we do something fun?”

Karkat frowned, his eyes flickering to seek Dave’s ones, though he couldn’t see them behind his shades. At least he was giving Dave his full attention.

“Oh? And what do you propose to do? I warn you I have no intention to spend time over in Can Town”.

“No, no, no way man, I have something else in mind,” with a determined smile, Dave straightened up. “What about a movie?”

He knew he had won as Karkat’s eyes widened slightly, before narrowing back down into a suspicious stare. “This isn’t one of those ironic statements of yours, is it? We’re not going to watch a shitty human movie while you keep trying to convince me it’s one of the highlights of your human society, right?”

Dave shook his head, pushing his shades up on top of his head and staring right into Karkat’s face. “No, Karkat, mi amigo, I’m not pulling one on you. this is a true, honest offer for a ticket to a movie night with Dave Strider, worth a not-shitty movie and popcorn, snuggling optional”.

He’d added the last part as a joke, but Karkat seemed to appraise him for a moment before nodding, and it left Dave wondering if he’d taken seriously all Dave had said, or if he was just giving back some of Dave’s own teasing from before.

The idea of snuggling was so removed from Dave that it could even be his third cousin, but with the seed planted by his own words, he couldn’t help but think about it. Karkat was, in many ways, a physical person, unlike Dave himself. He expressed things with motions and gestures and touches, though he was always aware of personal bubbles and privacy, maybe appearing a bit gruff and clumsy but still respectful.

Dave on his own avoided anything physical, maybe except fistbumps or casual brushes during strife, and the idea of offering something like that to someone who could actually accept made him feel slightly unsure.

Still, if he had to think too much about it –and Dave was unfortunately prone to overthinking things– snuggling didn’t sound too bad if it was just Karkat. He would have had more reservations if it had been Rose, or even Terezi, let alone Kanaya.

If that said anything specific about his particular budding friendship with Karkat, Dave chose not to dwell on it.

He was having already enough trouble as it was with trying to find his way around this friendship, and adding… suspicions… to that would make everything worse. After his failed relationship with Terezi, no-complicated friendships were just what he needed.

“Well then, what movie do you suggest, oh great almighty Strider?” Karkat was staring at him, issuing a challenge, and Dave knew he was up to it.

“This is a movie that’s going to blow your mind, Karkat,” he assured, standing up and cracking his knuckles, smirking and moving towards the door. “You’re officially appointed as our food manager. Get some munchies while I go alchemize the star of the night”.

Karkat snorted –a soft sound of amusement that made Dave smirk at him, then they both left the room, headed in two different directions.

It took Dave only ten minutes to find the correct code –cracking the trick of alchemization was no big feat when you had teachers almost every time you fell asleep, despite an annoying lisp and the tendency to throw grub–games at the back of his head with psionic powers whenever he turned around.

There was a definite skip to his step as he returned to his bedroom, and he was quite sure he was still smiling as he pushed open the door to reveal Karkat firmly planted on top of his bed with his own share of blankets already shaped like a cocoon, a bowl of what looked like popcorn in his lap and a couple bottles of soda.

“So what’s the movie?” the troll asked, turning towards him with an expectant stare.

“Oh, it’s an old one that will make you squeak like a grub,” Dave pushed past Karkat’s cocoon and opened the disc slot of his computer, inserting the DVD into it. Karkat observed him curiously, as this was one of the differences between their worlds (grubs were the most common hi-tech storage for games or movies, after all, leaving only the lowest quality programs running on discs).

The movie player flicked on, and Karkat hesitantly read the title on the screen, written in the foreign human language.

“Labyrinth,” he glanced at Dave, then undid part of his cocoon and pointedly waited for Dave to shuffle inside.

Apparently he’d taken the whole cuddling part seriously, and now Dave was definitely not sure he should accept or not. Ignoring him and flopping down at his side might offend him, but actually doing what the troll was silently asking for would… wouldn’t it make things weird?

Did trolls normally cuddle like that? Dave had no hard time picturing Karkat doing it, but what about others? Kanaya, Terezi…

He shook his head, swallowed down his silly pride, and shuffled under the offered side of the blanket. It was warm already, and Karkat’s body was emitting enough heat that the blankets were quite useless.

Dave grabbed the edge of the blanket and Karkat removed his arm. Apparently they wouldn’t be strictly cuddling, he was simply welcoming him into his soft cocoon. Dave definitely did not feel cheated out.

He started the movie.

Dave was fond of the movie. Bro’s normal choice in movies was dope, but this particular one was a personal favourite, for obvious reasons. The fact that there were talking puppets had probably something to do with why Bro liked it, but it just had too much awesome in it not to be a great choice for their first movie night.

At first, Dave’s attention flickered from the computer screen to Karkat’s face, trying to be subtle about it since they were almost pressed together on the bed, but after a while the plot started to develop, and Karkat’s eyes were glued to the screen, so Dave didn’t have to sneak a glance anymore.

It looked like he was enjoying the movie, and the music and David Bowie, eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

It made Dave smile, glad he’d picked a good one. Then again, he had no idea who _wouldn’t_ like that movie.

Dave forced himself to return his attention to the computer when he realised he’d been staring at Karkat for at least a full minute, embarrassed at his own actions.

At the ‘you remind me of the babe’ scene, Dave mouthed the part to himself, dramatically waving his arms around, and Karkat slapped his hand away, holding it by the wrist and shoving it down against the mattress so it would not compromise his line of sight, not relinquishing the hold despite Dave’s attempts to free himself.

“Kar–”

“Shhh!”

“Let me–”

“ _Shhhh_!”

“Glad to see you like the movie,” he grumbled to himself, attention entirely zeroed on the warmth of Karkat’s fingers around his wrist.

This movie night sleepover idea was quickly turning to bite him in the ass, but the thought was only half-hearted, and Dave resigned himself to be restrained, and with a last glance at Karkat’s face, he returned his attention to the movie.

The rest of the movie went on without a problem, and Dave didn’t even realise he’d started a slow, doomed slouch against Karkat’s side until he was already there and quite comfortable, ear pressed against the troll’s shoulder and feeling his own heartbeat flutter in his skull.

By the end of the movie, Karkat was literally vibrating at his side, so much that Dave had to get up and poke him, a smirk in place and an expectant gaze.

“I might have underestimated the levels of your human society, Dave,” were the first actual words Karkat spoke to him as he turned his attention from the ending titles and to him. his eyes were sparkling, and there was an excited grin on his face. “You might not be entirely expendable, it seems. Your rotten society might be more than a failure to the eyes of the obviously superior race”.

“Not so superior if you don’t have Troll Labyrinth,” he replied, snorting and stretching his back. His hand wandered into the popcorn bowl, finding it empty. “Well, shit, no more crunchies”.

“I’ll have you know that you ate all of them by yourself,” Karkat replied with a side glance. “But just because I’m magnanimous, I’ll go get some more… if you have another movie worth watching”.

Karkat cleared his throat, hesitating, and Dave, in a sudden moment of clarity, realised that this was the way Karkat was asking him if he could hang around for a bit more.

Well shit, that was more than ok.

“Sure thing man, there are way more from where this came from… just wait till you get to the Princess Bride…”

“What the fuck is a princess bride?”

“Someone who wears a fluttery white dress and gets to be carried around,” he replied, smiling as he made his way towards the door. “All the while looking pretty”.

“If it’s your aspiration, I can carry your bony ass to Kanaya and she can dress you up,” Karkat offered, far too seriously for Dave’s liking.

“Who said that’d be me?”

“You mentioned it first, dickhead”.

“Well, keep dreaming Karkat, but it’s not open for discussion, I’d be the _best_ fucking bride of the whole meteor”.

Karkat snorted, and flung a pillow Dave’s way, missing him by a fraction as he left the room to get some more movies. “Can’t dream something I don’t know, but I’m quite sure it would be a never ending source of amusement either way”.

“Yeah, yeah, free to think whatever you want Karkat!”

Chuckling to himself, Dave hurried down the corridor. The night was still young and they had a lot of movies to watch.


End file.
